Last week, Americans watched as our President announced sweeping changes to our nation’s immigration system. The bottom line of his decision? Amnesty.

In a stunning example of executive overreach, the President took an action that he himself has said is one of the biggest problems facing America. “I take the Constitution very seriously. The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with [the president] trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that’s what I intend to reverse when I’m President of the United States of America,” the President said in a campaign speech in 2008.

But in last week’s televised announcement of his executive action, the President brought that statement to its knees. In one 15-minute address to the nation, he went back on 22 statements he made claiming he couldn’t ignore or create his own immigration laws.

Since his announcement last week, the President has forged ahead with his executive plan for amnesty, leaving the American people – and the Constitution of the United States – in his dust.

Let me state clearly my position on immigration: No amnesty. Period. Our immigration policy must reflect our core belief that entry into the United States is not a right, but a privilege. America’s immigration laws are only as good as our commitment to enforcing them. Executive action granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants not only fails to fix the problem, it makes it worse. It undermines our current immigration policy, and will only encourage more illegal immigration.

But the uproar over the President’s decision is about more than immigration. It’s about a commitment to the Supreme Law of the Land.

American presidents swear to faithfully execute the laws of our nation. Yet, Americans have repeatedly found themselves in situations where they question whether the current President is truly upholding his end of that commitment. Each unilateral action chips away at what little trust remains in our government institutions. Our institutions, our Constitution, and our nation’s foundation are built on the rule of law. On the issue of immigration, the cornerstone to any successful plan must be the enforcement of our current immigration laws. The President’s executive actions place the integrity of those laws, as well as the integrity of our government, at stake.

American presidents, by the nature of their position, make a commitment to work through the democratic process. The President’s unilateral action to change our immigration laws is not discretion; it is a blatant disregard of the separation of powers as laid out in the Constitution. In his address to the nation Thursday night, the President criticized aspects of our democratic system. However, the very pieces of that democratic system that the President criticized – the processes of deliberation and negotiation – are set in place to prevent sweeping changes from taking place without proper debate. The goal is not obstruction. The goal is to create the best possible laws to govern our nation. Finding an agreement is never going to be easy. But our Constitution doesn’t promise easy. It only promises that there will be separation of powers, and checks and balances to protect our democracy and the American people. When the President sidesteps that process, especially out of frustration, he is pushing aside the very core tenants of our government.

American presidents are supposed to be trustworthy, even if we disagree with them. We want our presidents to rise above, but at the very least, we expect them to be honest and uphold the law. The President’s unilateral action tastes bitterly of a “my way or the highway” approach that the American people loathe and our form of government rejects.

Even as Americans are angry at the President’s blatant disregard for the law, I know it is equally frustrating for Americans who still want to know something is being done in Congress about immigration. Our immigration system is a mess. It needs to be fixed. And we have a Constitutional process for fixing it. That’s why I’ve worked with my colleagues in the House Judiciary Committee to pass meaningful reforms that focus on what must be our priority: enforcement of our immigration laws and ensuring the security of our borders.

Now in the face of the President’s executive actions on amnesty, we must pivot our attention from meaningful immigration reform to addressing his executive actions. I stand in strong support of the House Judiciary Committee in its use of every tool at its disposal to fight the Administration’s unilateral action defying the American people, their elected representatives, and the Supreme Law of the Land.

This is not a dispute between the Administration and Congress, or the President and Republicans, or between political parties; this is a dispute between the Administration and the Constitution of the United States.

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Augusta Free Press launched in 2002. The site serves as a portal into life in the Shenandoah Valley and Central Virginia – in a region encompassing Augusta County, Albemarle County and Nelson County and the cities of Charlottesville, Staunton and Waynesboro, at the entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway, Skyline Drive, Shenandoah National Park and the Appalachian Trail.